The Beer Nut: The best in beer blogs

Wednesday

Sep 29, 2010 at 12:01 AMSep 29, 2010 at 10:13 AM

You can find anything you want on the Web, including hundreds of beer bloggers from around the country. And although I still recommend that you read my blog (blogs.wickedlocal.com/beernut), here are several other blogs you should add to your reading list.

Norman Miller

You can find anything you want on the Web, including hundreds of beer bloggers from around the country. You can get all kinds of information about any aspect of beer you want.

And although I still recommend that you read my blog (blogs.wickedlocal.com/beernut), here are several other blogs you should add to your reading list. (These are in alphabetical order and not ranked from best to worst or anything like that.)

1. The Beer Babe (www.thebeerbabe.com)

The Beer Babe, known in real life as 28-year-old Carla Companion of Portland, Maine, has been blogging about beer for the past three years, and also writes a beer column for Rate Beer's The Hop Press (hoppress.com).

The blog got its start from what Companion said was her bad memory. She used to live in Dover, N.H., with five other people, and lived near a beer store.

They'd constantly buy new beers to try them while sitting around talking about them. After a year, Companion said she realized she had tried more than 100 beers, and she had trouble remembering which ones she liked best.

So to keep track of all her beers, she decided to use the Internet.

"This (to keep track of beers) seemed easiest to do through a blog, and I was initially surprised when I started to find people reading and commenting on it," Companion said. "I do primarily beer reviews and what I call 'beer adventures,' where I go to beer events, breweries and do other outings related to beer."

2. BeerZen Girl (beerzengirl.tumblr.com)

BeerZen Girl, aka Doreen Gantt, combines Zen philosophy and her love of beer into one blog.

The blog is relatively new - she started it in June - after she discovered a love for craft beer.

Gantt, from the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, provides the perfect reviews for those just getting into craft beer. They're not full of overly geeky beer terms, but still let people know what to expect from a beer.

Gantt said her blog's reviews are written with the beginner in mind.

"I made a choice early on that I needed to keep it simple, so my rating system is 'love it,' 'like it,' 'OK' and 'not for me,"' she said. "I do not want to discourage anyone from trying any kind of beer."

3. Brew England (brewengland.blogspot.com)

Brew England is written by Adam Meuse, originally of Hooksett, N.H., and his fiancee, Sarah Stewart of Braintree, Mass.

The idea for the blog actually got started a few years ago after a trip to the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Merrimac, N.H., Meuse said.

The couple then started visiting other breweries - Samuel Adams and Harpoon in Boston - before planning day trips farther and farther away.

The blog features reviews of beers as well as postings about their various trips to other breweries.

"If we're visiting places for some reason or another, we'll typically try to see if there's a brewery, brewpub or great beer-centric bar in the area we haven't visited - or we'll revisit if we had a great time," said Meuse.

Here for the Beer is one of the more video-heavy beer websites you'll find.

The blog was started in December 2008 by husband and wife Tim and Amy Brady of Brattleboro, Vt., when they decided to start documenting their adventures in beer, Tim Brady said.

Their first video was the cellar tour at Ebenezer's Pub in Lovell, Maine.

Originally, they started posting videos to show their friends, but they started attracting viewers requesting more videos.

Now, you'd be hard-pressed not running into the pair - Amy is usually the host, with Tim manning the camera.

"The name (of the blog) was a reference of our travel technique," said Tim Brady. "We often plan our travel around visiting a good beer bar or brewery. We really are 'here for the beer,' on many of our trips."

The blog also features unique reviews - beers are ranked in many categories, including "sexiness." Here's an example of a "sexiness" review for Stone's Smoked Porter from Amy Brady: "This beer is sexy hot, like an exotic Argentinian woman with her long wavy black hair and legs that go on forever."

The pair also run the Forty Putney Road Bed & Breakfast in Brattleboro, where they conduct weekly beer tastings for their guests in their small pub.

5. Lost in the Beer Aisle (www.lostinthebeeraisle.com)

Josh Dion of Westborough, Mass., said he always liked trying new beers and when he moved to town a few years ago, he discovered Julio's Liquors, which opened up a world of craft beer to him.

Originally, he said, he'd buy a lot of new beers, take some photos and post them on Facebook to show his friends what he was drinking.

"At first there were just pictures," he said. "I soon added a sentence for a description. One sentence turned into two sentences, which eventually turned into two paragraphs."

He then started Lost in the Beer Aisle in the spring of 2009. He said he writes his beer postings like he is "a complete and utter newbie," not worrying if he got things wrong that may irritate the hardcore beer snobs.

"The moniker of the site is 'Never take beer or life too seriously,' and I mean it," said Dion. "As far as I'm concerned, there are no rules about beer. There is no right or wrong way to enjoy it, nor do I believe anyone should be criticized for their choice in beer. As long as you enjoy your beer, that's what it's all about."

There are tons of other bloggers out there. Send me an e-mail with some of your favorites, and why you like them, and I'll post them on my blog.

Norman Miller is a Daily News staff writer. For questions, comments, suggestions or recommendations, e-mail nmiller@cnc.com or call 508-626-3823. Check out The Beer Nut blog at http://blogs.wickedlocal.com/beernut/ or follow the Beer Nut at his Twitter page at www.twitter.com/realbeernut.